Zimbabwe posted a trade deficit of US$189,000,000 in the first six months of 2007 against China, the price of a costly marriage of convenience founded on Harare’s quest for friendship and Beijing’s search for cheap raw materials. Bi-lateral trade between the two countries clocked US$205,000,00 between January and June, almost 80 per cent of the US$270,000,000 registered during the whole of 2006.

The divide in perceived levels of corruption in rich and poor countries remains as sharp as ever, according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released today by Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption. Developed and developing countries must share responsibility for reducing corruption, in tackling both the supply and demand sides.

At the beginning of October, the European Commission will hold a prize-giving ceremony at Europe House for the International Drawing Competition on Gender Equality, which was launched in March by European Commissioner Benita-Ferrero Waldner on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This was announced in a press statement by the European Commission’s Aude Guignard. According to Guignard, ten drawings from children aged between 8 and 10 were pre-selected and sent to Brussels.

The head of Kenya's Anglican Church has rejected a compromise over gay bishops by US Episcopal Church leaders. They have said they will halt the ordination of gay bishops and public blessings of same-sex relationships to prevent a split in the Anglican Church. 'That word "halt" is not enough', said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.

Several popular Spanish rock groups have helped collect 600,000 signatures and delivered them to the government in support of an international campaign calling for the Spanish government to modify its trade policy towards Africa and eliminate restrictions on imports from that region.

Up to $42 billion will need to be found by 2010 if universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care is to be achieved in line with the 2005 commitment by G8 governments, UNAIDS has said. UNAIDS’ estimate has been developed ahead of an international meeting, which starts today in Berlin, to win increased donor commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The Fund currently accounts for one-quarter of all international donor expenditure on Aids.

There is a 'melting pot' of all the races of Europe in America, but it does not include African Americans. It may someday include light-skinned Hispanics, and everybody else except Blacks, Stephen Steinberg writes. The American paradigm of race requires that there be an 'other' - and the other is Black people. That's what makes white people, white.

This new research report conducted by the Centre for Chinese Studies evaluated the market entry models of Chinese construction firms in Angola, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. Particular attention was paid to the methods of engagement and the impact on the local construction industries.

An appalling total of 144 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers’ rights in 2006, while more than 800 suffered beatings or torture, according to the Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, published by the International Trade Union Confederation, which boasts 168,000,000 members. The 379-page report details nearly 5,000 arrests and more than 8,000 dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities.

Somewhere, some time this year, a baby will be born on the 25th floor of a city hospital or the dirt floor of a dark slum shack; a first-year college graduate will rent a cramped apartment in lower Manhattan, and a family of five will finally concede their plot of farm land to an encroaching desert or sea, and turn towards Jakarta or La Paz or Lagos in search of a new livelihood and a new home. The arrival of this family or graduate or baby will tip the world’s demographic scale and, for the first time in history, more than half the human population will live in cities.

Aid donors should re-think their self-appointed role as saviours of the poor, and try more modest and realistic approaches, argues William Easterly. Over the past five decades, the West has donated US$2.3 trillion in foreign aid to poor countries. Most of this money has been funnelled into a series of grand plans to eradicate poverty — plans that have become increasingly high-profile in a bid to attract money from both public and private purses.

Since 2003, Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa. Industrial gold mining has led to much hope for Mali’s economic development : the increase in state revenue should have had a positive impact on social expenditures in the areas of education, health, etc. Moreover, the establishment of a mining industry was expected to bring improvements in the situation of local communities.

Caribbean governments have alleged that the European Union is trying to prevent them from signing trade deals with other poor countries on their own terms. The EU's executive, the European Commission, is hoping to secure a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by the end of this year.

When soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army join a United Nations peacekeeping unit in Sudan, early October, they will mark Beijing’s new diplomatic assertiveness. They will also signify a departure from a posture of refusing to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

Heavy rainy season downpours have left areas of eastern Chad flooded and have seriously hampered efforts by UNHCR and other aid agencies to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians. The rains have eased over the past week, but flooding continues to cut land access to the Koukou Angarana region in the south-east, and has forced locals and displaced people in the area to head for higher ground.

In many southern countries, monoculture tree plantations are advancing rapidly, causing serious negative impacts on local communities as well as on the environment. In the year 2004, following an initiative of the Brazilian Network against the Green Desert, an organisation with a long track record of resistance to tree plantations, 21 September - national tree day - was chosen as a significant date to commemorate internationally the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.

Episcopal bishops were tight-lipped on Thursday about meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury aimed at healing a rift in their Church over the ordaining of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Gay issues are threatening to tear their Worldwide Anglican Communion apart. But there were no reports of progress at the start of a conference in New Orleans of US bishops and delegates from overseas Anglican churches.

Chinese relations with Africa have grown exponentially over the past decade, writes Lucy Corkin. During the 1990s, Sino-African trade grew by 700 per cent, and many high-level visits have occurred since 1995. Increased political activity has paved the way for the entry of Chinese companies of all sectors into Africa's economies.

The capacity of large corporations and business associations to shape patterns of social development and government policy in developing countries has increased significantly in recent decades. This is largely the result of pressures exerted through capital flows; global supply chains; lobbying; the participation of non-state actors in consultation and decision-making processes associated with standard-setting and public policy; the internationalisation of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda; and public-private partnerships (PPP). The open conference, held in Geneva from November 12-13, 2007, will be composed of 26 presentations by scholars and researchers from both the North and the South.

The launch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s (CHRI) 2007 Report to the Commonwealth Heads of Government, ‘Stamping Out Rights: The impact of anti-terrorism laws on policing’, focuses on the need for police and legislative reform in the Commonwealth in an age of terrorism. Due for release at CHRI’s twentieth anniversary conference in London, on 14 September 2007, the report highlights disturbing trends in counter-terrorism laws passed, and the resulting police abuses, on the basis of the preservation of national security.